Grass Agriculture By John Neil Conkle. What Well Cover What Makes Grass-Fed Special? How is it...

Grass Agriculture

By John Neil Conkle

What We’ll Cover

• What Makes Grass-Fed Special?

• How is it different from Grain-Fed?

• Economic Considerations

• Should we eat meat?

What Makes Grass Different?

Let’s take a detour…

Why Should We Care?

• Grass captures solar energy very efficiently

• Humans can’t digest it

• Grassland sequesters carbon

• Smart Ranching Highly Efficient Use of Land

Rotational Grazing

…Go on?

Grass Fed – the stats

• Twice as expensive

• Cows are smaller than grain-fed cows

• Take longer to grow

• Not available in most supermarkets

Why Buy Them Then?

• Preferences

• Health Benefits

• Moral/Ethical Concerns

Economic Implications

And Why It’ll Be Niche for a While

Grass is a Niche Market

– Highly efficient process, but complicated

– Processing costs

–CONSUMER PREFERENCES

Is Demand For Grass-Fed Beef Growing?

Google Insights

What About Corn?

Why Are Prices Rising?

Super Official Data-set

Actual Data

Should We Eat Meat?

Ethical Considerations, Land Usage, Sustainability, Methane Emissions

Ethical Considerations

• Do we have a right to kill animals?

The Reaper is Coming

Animal Deaths

• Steven L. Davis, May 25th, 2002– 1.8 billion animal deaths estimated if 100% of US

farmland was dedicated to grain– 1.4 billion animal deaths if half of land was

pasture (with large herbivores), half grain

Citation on my blog if you’re curious

The Ugly Truth

• If we can eat it, it used to be alive.

We Could Put Hilly Land to Use

Environmental Considerations

Predicting Catastrophe

• A 1972 MIT study predicted the exhaustion of ALL copper, lead, mercury, natural gas, oil, silver, tin, tungsten and zinc by 2000. – Did that happen?

• In 1972, they estimated global reserves of 455 billion barrels untapped. Since then we have harvested 1 trillion barrels.

• Obviously they made some faulty predictions

Economic Growth has its Upsides

Why Am I Telling You This?

• As Economic Pressures Rise, We Develop New Tech

• … And We routinely underestimate How Fast

• Your choice: Richer people, less babies, and more tech, or global enforced depression

• So Relax.

Data from NASA

All decomposition created equal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanogenesis

What We Covered

• What Makes Grass-Fed Special?– More efficient and healthier

• How is it different from Grain-Fed?– Less inputs, more humane

• Economic Considerations– Demand driven, possibly a growing market

• Should we eat meat?– There’s more important things to worry about

Grass Agriculture By John Neil Conkle. What Well Cover What Makes Grass-Fed Special? How is it...

Documents

Pasture to Market - LSU AgCenter/media/system/4/7/d/d/... · Nutritional values and quality of beef, grain-fed vs. grass-fed All beef cattle are fed with grass at some point in their

PROTEIN FRUIT FERMENTED FOODS VEGETABLES … · Foods To Have FERMENTED FOODS Kombucha Beet Kvass Grass-fed fermented dairy DAIRY Raw grass-fed whole milk or grass …

Study of Grass Fed Beef as a Value Chain in North Central ...aaalivestock.com/.../BII_study_of_grass_fed_beef.pdf · most ranchers in the region to produce a commercial grass fed/grass

The Facts; Busting the Grass-fed Beef Myths

STARTERS SALADS DESSERTS · BILLY’S CHEESEBURGER 19,5 Grass fed angus beef, bacon, tasty cheese, pickles, American mustard and ketchup AUSSIE BURGER 22 Grass fed angus beef, ketchup,

Trends in the Production and Marketing of Grass-fed Beef ...old.kansasruralcenter.org/publications/CCCSchmidtGrassFedBeef.pdf · Greener Pastures: How grass-fed beef and milk contribute

Grass Fed Beef - Resources

Dairy, Grass-Fed Beef, & Grains in the North Bay

Grass Fed, Dry Aged Beef Crosby, Texas Ray Law. What is Grass Fed or Pasture Fed Beef? Put simply, American grass fed beef is exactly that--cattle that

The Low-Oxalate Shopping Guide - DrJockers.com · The Low-Oxalate Shopping Guide Organic and Grass-fed Beef Organic and Grass-fed Turkey Organic and Grass-fed Venison Organic and

TO START - Microsoft...ARTICHOKE, ASPARAGUS & CRANBERRY JUS Rump 300gm 38 grass fed Rib-eye 250gm 38 grass fed sirloin 250gm grass fed 38 Tenderloin 200gm grass fed 38 CHILLI, LEMON(GF)

Grass-Fed: Boon or Bane

Grassfed Ruminant Standards...AGA Grass-fed market animals may NOT be fed molasses blocks or tubs with a target intake of over 3 pounds (pressed blocks/tubs). AGA Grass-fed market

Grass-fed vs Grain-fed Cattle...Grass-fed 10.99 19.2 9.62 11.7 – 12.4 11.3 Grain-fed 13.17 8.4 - 15.3 6.09 12.1 13.7 Water footprint The Water Footprint measures freshwater consumption

Acorn grass fed beef

Michigan Grass-Fed Dairy Value Chains

The purpose of this guide is to facilitate direct-market ... › documents › WEBfarm13.pdf · Pastured organic-fed broilers, turkeys, laying hens & eggs, grass-fed lamb, grass-fed

The Benefits of Grass-fed Beef

Grass-Fed Marketing · 2013. 1. 20. · Grass Fed Beef - Marketing US Wellness Meats’ mission is to provide superior quality, grass finished beef as part of our overall goal of

Grass Fed Beef